System and Computer Program Product for Transactional, Addressable Communication

1. A system for providing a transactional, addressable shared mail object over a network, the system comprising: a first node connectable to the network for generating and communicating a non-duplicated shared mail object having content and accessible to a plurality of users and for routing a reference to the shared mail object, the shared mail object having a unique identifier, an address section, a metadata section, a comments section, a content section and one of a permissions section, a goal section, and a signature section, wherein the unique identifier comprises a globally unique identifier; and a second node connectable to the network for receiving the reference to the shared mail object, wherein the shared mail object is identified over the network using the unique identifier and the shared mail object is accessible to the second node via the reference, the content of at least one section of the shared mail object is transactionally modifiable after the second node has received the reference to the shared mail object, wherein a change to the content of the modifiable section of the shared mail object is atomic, consistent, isolated and durable with respect to each of the plurality of users, without duplication of the shared mail object, and the content of the modifiable section of the shared mail object is at all times consistent for the first and second nodes, and wherein all transactional modifications to the shared mail object are made according to ACID properties, where all transactional modifications to the shared mail object are atomic, the shared mail object proceeds from one consistent state to another consistent state, concurrent modifications to the shared mail object result in a shared mail object that would be obtained if each of the transactional modifications were executed in serial isolation, and once a transactional modification is committed to the shared mail object, the transactional modification will be durable even in the presence of a computer power loss or computer crash.

2. The system of claim 1 , wherein the shared mail object further comprises a workflow section.

3. The system of claim 2 , wherein the workflow section comprises one of a state machine and computer-interpretable instructions.

4. The system of claim 1 , wherein the content section comprises multiple content blocks.

5. The system of claim 1 , wherein the shared mail object has a type selected from a group consisting of an unstructured type, a chat type, a dashboard type, a notification type, an agreement request type, a poll type, an approval request type, a response request type, a grid type, a gridset type, a table type, a tableset type, a calendar type, a photo album type, a play list type, a map type, a note type, an order type, a shipment type, an invoice type, and a payment type.

6. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reference comprises a Universal Resource Identifier (URI), and wherein the shared mail object is individually addressable over the network via the Universal Resource Identifier (URI).

7. A computer program product embodied on a non-transitory computer readable medium for creating a transactional, addressable communication over a network, wherein the computer program is implemented by one or more processors executing processor instructions, the computer program product comprising: a first computer code for selecting a context for the communication; a second computer code for selecting a type for the communication; a third computer code for using the context and type to instantiate a non-duplicated shared mail object having content and accessible to a plurality of users for the communication, wherein the shared mail object comprises a unique identifier, an address section, a comments section, a metadata section, a content section and one of a permissions section, a goal section, and a signature section, and wherein the unique identifier comprises a globally unique identifier; a fourth computer code for populating the address, metadata, and content sections in the shared mail object; a fifth computer code for routing a reference to the shared mail object to a destination over a network; a sixth computer code for validating the shared mail object; a seventh computer code for storing the shared mail object, wherein the shared mail object is identified over the network via the unique identifier and the shared mail object is individually accessible to the destination via the reference; and an eighth computer code for transactionally modifying, at the destination where the shared mail object is stored, the content of at least one section of the shared mail object, wherein a change to the content of the modifiable section of the shared mail object is atomic, consistent, isolated and durable with respect to each of the plurality of users, without duplication of the shared mail object, and the content of the modifiable section of the shared mail object is at all times consistent for each of the plurality of users, and wherein all transactional modifications to the shared mail object are made according to ACID properties, where all transactional modifications to the shared mail object are atomic, the shared mail object proceeds from one consistent state to another consistent state, concurrent modifications to the shared mail object result in a shared mail object that would be obtained if each of the transactional modifications were executed in serial isolation, and once a transactional modification is committed to the shared mail object, the transactional modification will be durable even in the presence of a computer power loss or computer crash at the destination where the shared mail object is stored.

8. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the context for the communication is selected from the group consisting of a global context, an organization context, an operator-defined context, a mixed context, and an application context.

9. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the type for the communication is selected from a group consisting of an unstructured type, a chat type, a dashboard type, a notification type, an agreement request type, a poll type, an approval request type, a response request type, a grid type, a gridset type, a table type, a tableset type, a calendar type, a photo album type, a playlist type, a map type, a note type, an order type, a shipment type, an invoice type, and a payment type.

10. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the shared mail object further comprises a comments section and a user list, and transactionally modifying comprises at least one selected from a group consisting of adding a comment to the comments section, adding one or more users to the user list, and modifying the content of at least one section of the shared mail object other than the comments section and the user list.

11. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein routing the reference to the shared mail object to a destination comprises using one of a redirector module, a load balancer, a peer-to-peer connection, and a routing protocol.

12. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein validating the shared mail object comprises verifying one of a session, a state engine, an embedded signature, and type constraints.

13. The computer program product of claim 9 , wherein storing the shared mail object comprises putting the shared mail object in one of a global data store, a local data store, a user-defined data store, the working area of an application execution environment, an audit trail, a versioned store, a full-text index, a directory, a relational database, an object database, a key-pair database, a filesystem, and a combination thereof.

14. The computer program product of claim 7 , further comprising creating a reference data structure and associating the reference data structure with the shared mail object.

15. A method for interacting with a transactional, addressable shared mail object, the shared mail object, the method comprising: using a globally-unique identifier to locate a non-duplicated shared mail object having content and accessible to a plurality of users over a network, the shared mail object having an address section, a metadata section, a comments section, a content section and one of a permissions section, a goal section, and a signature section; retrieving the shared mail object from a storage module; loading the shared mail object into a working environment; transactionally modifying the content of a section in the shared mail object, wherein a change to the content of the modifiable section of the shared mail object is atomic, consistent, isolated and durable with respect to each of the plurality of users, without duplication of the shared mail object, and the content of the modifiable of the shared mail object is at all times consistent for each of the plurality of users, and wherein all transactional modifications to the shared mail object are made according to ACID properties, where all transactional modifications to the shared mail object are atomic, the shared mail object proceeds from one consistent state to another consistent state, concurrent modifications to the shared mail object result in a shared mail object that would be obtained if each of the transactional modifications were executed in serial isolation, and once a transactional modification is committed to the shared mail object, the transactional modification will be durable even in the presence of a computer power loss or computer crash; and storing the modified shared mail object to the storage module, wherein the shared mail object is individually identified and accessible over the network using the globally-unique identifier.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein loading the shared mail object into a working environment comprises one of interacting with a state engine located inside the shared mail object, interacting with a state engine located outside the shared mail object, using a guard module, creating a role-specific view, creating a type-specific view, and creating a workflow-specific view.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein transactionally modifying a section in the shared mail object comprises one of adding information to the section, removing information from the section, changing information in the section, changing metadata in the section, changing metadata about the section, changing permissions in the section, changing permissions on the section, interacting with a state engine located in the section, interacting with a state engine located outside the section, signing the section, encrypting the section, decrypting the section, updating an audit trail, and verifying an audit trail.

18. The method of claim 15 , further comprising creating a reference data structure and associating the reference data structure with the shared mail object.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein creating a reference data structure comprises updating a data store, modifying subscribed information, making a Remote Procedure Call (RPC), making an Application Programming Interface (API) call, creating a message, and creating an email.

20. The system of claim 1 , wherein the reference comprises the unique identifier.

21. The computer program product of claim 7 , wherein the reference comprises the unique identifier.

22. The system of claim 1 , wherein the address section, metadata section, comments section, content section, and goal section are modifiable in a single atomic, consistent transaction.

23. The system of claim 22 , wherein the address section, metadata section, comments section, content section, and goal section remain consistent relative to each other after the transaction.

24. The method of claim 13 , further comprising confirming whether a forwarded or cloned transactional, addressable communication has been altered and identifying the alteration, via the audit trail.

25. The method of claim 13 , further comprising computing authoritative differences between states of the transactional, addressable communication via the audit trail.

26. The method of claim 13 , wherein the audit trail is used to provide one selected from a group consisting of ensuring authoritative, binding agreements between the parties, and authoritatively certifying all section types including their content.